61 pages • 2 hours read
Iain M. BanksConsider Phlebas
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1987A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Megaship”
The CAT heads to Vavatch, though Kraiklyn provides little explanation for the trip. Yalson suspects Kraiklyn plans to participate in the Damage game—a dangerous type of gambling--on the orbital and is frustrated that Kraiklyn risks the crew with no intention of sharing the winnings. En route, Kraiklyn informs the crew of a new mission: stripping a Vavatch Megaship, the Olmedreca, of weapons and valuables. While most of the old megaships have already been raided, a nuclear weapon hit the Olmedreca, leaving it listing in space with an enormous hole in its side. Kraiklyn wants the KFC to enter the ship and acquire any remaining valuables, specifically a replacement bow laser for the CAT.
Excited about the mission, a crew member, Lenipobra, misses Kraiklyn’s briefing about anti-gravity devices (AG) being ineffective due to the megaship’s spin. He dies after jumping off the CAT, intending to land on the megaship with his AG. The crew soberly leaves to explore the ship, discovering that they landed on the wrong part. During their exploration, a cloud obscures their view, hiding an iceberg. They only see it shortly before it hits the ship, and the crew struggles to get off as the iceberg rips it to shreds. Horza escapes on a shuttle with Mipp, another crewmate. Horza tries to convince Mipp to save crewmember Lamm, but Mipp is too afraid and leaves him behind. Lamm’s suit explodes after the wreckage crushes him, detonating the nuke he carries.
Horza wants to return to the ship to save the other crew members, but Mipp insists they are all dead and locks Horza in the passenger section of the shuttle. It is too damaged to reach Vavatch’s port, Evanauth, or return to the CAT. Exhausted, Horza falls asleep and wakes to find the ship flying past an island. He tries to convince Mipp to land there, but the inhabitants shoot at the ship, and Mipp refuses.
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Eaters”
The shuttle crashes into the sea. Horza survives the shuttle crash, but Mipp perishes. Horza escapes the wreckage and swims to a nearby island, exhausted and in pain, hoping to gain passage on a shuttle. There, he encounters the islanders, who are underfed and unhealthy. They are led by Fwi-Song, a grotesquely large human who claims to be a prophet. Fwi-Song, once a freak show performer and palace pet, now leads his followers, the Eaters, in anticipation of Vavatch’s destruction. The Eaters subsist on fish entrails and other vile foods, and Fwi-Song practices cannibalism, feasting on those who wash ashore and any followers who displease him.
The islanders capture and bind Horza. He witnesses the horrific fate of a disciple named Twenty-Seventh, who is mutilated and devoured by Fwi-Song. As Horza contemplates his grim situation, he reflects on the Idirans’ belief in divine order and his mission to stop the Culture’s expansionist agenda. Despite his revulsion at Fwi-Song’s barbarity, Horza strategizes his escape, acknowledging the problems with Fwi-Song’s religious devotion but dismissing the Culture’s perspective that all religions are irrational and equally dangerous.
Horza attempts to deceive Fwi-Song by offering to take the Culture shuttle off the island, but Fwi-Song’s high priest, Mr. First, gags Horza for his efforts. Horza considers dying by suicide but decides to fight for any chance of survival. He manipulates his body to sweat acid to burn through the ropes binding him. Using his poisoned nails, he desperately attacks Mr. First but misses. Fwi-Song, in turn, devours one of Horza’s fingers, ingesting the poison. As Fwi-Song dies in agony, Horza blinds Mr. First. Fwi-Song falls, and his body crushes the priest. In the ensuing chaos, Horza escapes and boards the Culture shuttle.
The shuttle’s AI, Tsealsir, is outdated but pleased to assist in the Vavatch evacuation. The AI is confused as to why the other islanders do not wish to evacuate. Horza, distrustful of the Culture, tricks Tsealsir into revealing its core processing location and destroys it. He takes off, leaving the island and Fwi-Song’s remains behind.
Interlude 2 Summary: “Interlude in Darkness”
The Mind is trapped in the Command System tunnels on Schar’s World, severely weakened and operating with limited functionality.
The Mind uses a drone to survey Schar’s World, finding the primitive and clumsy technology around it frustrating and frightening. It contemplates plans for defense against the Idirans while wrestling with existential questions about its identity and purpose. The Mind’s memories are preserved but inaccessible, and it feels like an inferior copy of its true self.
Reflecting on its daring escape, the Mind is pleased but unsure how to escape its current predicament. It considers that it might have been easier to go down with its ship, but the chance to escape was too good to waste. It knows that the Idirans have a former Changer from Schar’s World coming for it, but it hopes the Culture or the Dra’Azon will rescue it first. Driven to survive, the Mind waits and hopes in darkness.
Chapter 7 Summary: “A Game of Damage”
In Evanauth, Vavatch Orbital, is the stage for the game of Damage, an exclusive and morally detached card game notorious for its high stakes and the sheer thrill it provides its participants. This game played amid the city’s impending destruction attracts the wealthiest and most disturbed individuals, who enjoy the chaos and impending annihilation. Each player in Damage wagers actual human lives--supposed volunteers--which will be lost if the player loses a hand. The players can also use the cards to project extreme emotional states, including suicidal impulses.
Horza, disguised as Kraiklyn, hides in the crowd of spectators, blending in with the “moties”—people who are addicted to the emotional aftershocks of the game’s intense fields—and trying to avoid detection. His mission is to find Kraiklyn. The chaotic buzz of the game fills the arena, and Horza skirts the effects of enhanced pheromones and animals engaging in unnoticed bloodsport. Amid the frenzied atmosphere, he struggles to locate Kraiklyn, who only has three lives remaining, making his survival precarious. At one point, an opponent hits Kraiklyn with a card that makes him question his identity. Though this card has little effect on Kraiklyn, it devastates Horza, who is mimicking Kraiklyn’s identity.
When Kraiklyn loses the game, Horza follows him outside and encounters a chaotic scene. Thinking quickly, Horza pays a towering guard to lift him above the crowd and spots Kraiklyn leaving in a red road car. Horza intercepts a hovercraft for Sarble the Eye, a notorious reporter, and pursues Kraiklyn through the port. The chase ends in a violent confrontation in the icy dock waters, where Horza, driven by desperation, overpowers Kraiklyn, kills him, and takes his identity.
Horza then arrives at The Ends of Invention, an enormous ex-Culture General Systems Vehicle (GSV), where the CAT is undergoing repairs. He is awed by the ship’s immense scale and complex operations. Upon reaching Smallbay 27492, he finds the CAT old and battered but intact. He encounters Yalson, who is surprised by his appearance but directs him toward the mess. Horza is stunned to see Perosteck Balveda, the Culture agent he last saw as a prisoner on The Hand of God 137.
Chapters 5-7 Analysis
Iain M. Banks’s exploration of religion in Consider Phlebas reveals a critical and often cynical perspective on religious fervor and devotion. This skepticism is vividly illustrated through the portrayal of the Eaters and the Damage players and followers. Both groups exhibit a form of devotion that Banks critiques, though their religious zeal manifests in different ways.
The Eaters are a prime example of Banks’s scrutiny of religious zealotry. They are a cult with a morbid philosophy centered around the worship of death and destruction. Their name signifies their core belief: They embrace cannibalism as part of their religious practice. The Eaters are not merely a fanatical cult; they represent a fundamentalist approach to religion that exalts suffering and annihilation as sacred. This is a group that accepts sacrifice as a form of salvation while rejecting the tangible salvation offered to them, such as the opportunity to evacuate the doomed Vavatch Orbital. Instead of seizing the chance to escape, the Eaters consume each other, desperate to survive until “The End of All Things” (169). Furthermore, the Culture’s announcement of the Orbital’s destruction only attracts more followers. Rather than adapting to new circumstances, the Eaters opt for sacrifice and, ultimately, death. Banks’s portrayal of the Eaters is deeply critical. He illustrates their religious fervor as misguided and inherently dangerous, thus elevating the Culture’s cause. In this context, Banks provides a revealing insight into the Culture’s view of religious belief:
Horza recalled that the Culture’s attitude to somebody who believed in an omnipotent God was to pity them, and to take no more notice of the substance of their faith than one would take of the ramblings of somebody claiming to be Emperor of the Universe (170).
The Culture views religious adherents as deluded, and the Eaters embody this perspective through their cruelty disguised as salvation. Banks thus uses the Eaters to explore the darker side of religious devotion. Their ritualistic practices and extreme beliefs critique how religion can become a tool for perpetuating violence and suffering. The Eaters epitomize the dangers of a faith that prioritizes its doctrines over the well-being of others, demonstrating how extreme devotion can lead to moral corruption and the justification of heinous acts.
In contrast, the Damage players and their followers demonstrate a different form of devotion, though one that Banks similarly criticizes. Damage, as portrayed in the novel, is a game that attracts the wealthiest and most depraved individuals. It is not just a game but a spectacle of moral decay, played out in the shadow of an impending apocalypse. Sarble offers this justification for Damage:
It’s been called the most decadent game in history. About all you can say in the game’s defence is that it, rather than reality, occupies the warped minds of some of the galaxy’s more twisted people…And if the game does any good apart from reminding us—as if we needed reminding—how crazy the bipedal, oxygen-breathing carboniform can become, it does occasionally remove one of the Players and frighten the rest for a while. In these arguably insane times, any lessening or attenuation of madness is maybe something to be grateful for (201).
In short, the only value of Damage is its potential to eliminate one of its dangerous players from the galaxy. The participants in Damage exhibit a form of devotion that is less about religious belief and more about indulging in the ultimate thrill of sacrificing human lives while witnessing and partaking in the destruction of everything. The Damage players’ obsession with the game reveals a different kind of fanaticism—one rooted in decadence and self-indulgence rather than spiritual fervor. They are drawn to the game’s extreme and morally questionable nature because it provides an unparalleled sense of excitement and escapism. In a way, their devotion to Damage mirrors the religious fervor of the Eaters but with a focus on hedonism rather than death worship. Banks critiques the Damage players’ devotion by portraying their engagement in the game as a symptom of moral and spiritual emptiness. Their participation reflects a broader societal malaise where extreme entertainment substitutes genuine meaning and fulfillment. This introduces the theme of The Pursuit of Purpose.
The Eaters and Damage players represent two sides of the same coin in Banks’s critique of devotion. Both groups exhibit extreme dedication that leads to morally questionable behavior. In comparing them, Banks highlights the universal danger of excessive devotion, whether to a religious cause or personal gratification. Both forms of devotion result in a loss of moral compass and an embrace of destructive behavior. The Eaters’ religious fanaticism and the Damage players’ pursuit of ultimate thrills are depicted as similar, reflecting how devotion, when unmoored from ethical considerations, can lead to profound moral and existential crises.
